Flat panel devices, such as flat-panel displays, including LCD (liquid crystal) displays, and polymer dispersed liquid crystal devices (PDLC) utilize transparent, conductive electrodes to control various operating functions of the flat panel device. For example, during the fabrication of a typical flat panel device, the transparent, conductive electrodes are typically formed of a thin, transparent, electrically-conductive film material, such as indium-tin-oxide (ITO), which is vacuum-deposited on a transparent, rigid glass substrate. Next, the ITO film is patterned into optically-transparent electrodes using conventional photolithographic techniques. Such a process requires precise and accurate bonding of the electrodes to the driving circuitry of the display, which can be costly.
Recently however, the flat-panel device industry has sought to replace the use of rigid glass substrates with flexible substrates, such as those formed from flexible plastics and polymers, while still retaining the use of ITO, or other electrically-conductive polymers, to form the transparent electrodes.
Specifically, when ITO is patterned using standard lithographic techniques, individual ITO stripes/strips are formed, such that there is no electrical connection or communication between neighboring, adjacent ITO stripes/strips. In other words, when standard lithographic techniques are used to pattern the ITO film into a plurality of ITO stripes/strips, each ITO stripe/stripe is electrically isolated from neighboring, adjacent ITO stripes. Due to this electrical isolation, or lack of electrical connection between neighboring, adjacent ITO stripes/strips, a driving signal, such as a voltage signal, is applied to an electrode that is directly attached to one of conductive ITO stripes/strips is only able to affect or control the ITO stripe/strip to which the electrode is directly connected. Thus, the image driven by an applied voltage can only be switched in those areas of the flat panel device that are covered by the ITO stripe/strip in direct receipt of the driving signal. In other words, the image driven by the voltage applied to the ITO stripe/strip is limited to the region defined by the dimension of the directly driven ITO stripe/strip itself.
Therefore, there is a need for an electro-optical device having a plurality of conductive transparent sections (i.e. stripes/strips) that are patterned on a substrate, such as a flexible substrate, so as to be separated from each other by cracks, whereby each control section (or portion thereof) is in partial electrical communication with neighboring, adjacent control sections. In addition, there is a need for an electro-optical device having an electro-optical responsive layer disposed next to the plurality of control sections, such that the optical state of an area of the electro-optical responsive layer is controlled by both the control sections that are in direct receipt of a control signal (i.e. direct control sections) and simultaneously, by one or more control sections that neighbor or that are adjacent to the directly driven ITO sections (i.e. indirect control sections) that do not directly receive a control signal. Furthermore, there is a need for an electro-optical device having an electro-optical responsive layer disposed adjacent to the plurality of control sections, such that the number of indirect control sections that are activated to deliver an electric field by any given direct control section is adjusted by the frequency of the control signal that is directly applied to the corresponding direct control sections, and as a result, the size of an area of the electro-optical responsive layer in which the optical state is controlled by the direct and indirect control sections is adjusted.